Sustainability Assessment of Urban Spaces in Developing Countries: The Nigerian Case

The level of sustainability achieved in developed countries is far higher than in developing countries. In developing countries, the case is different be-cause most aspects of sustainability have not been achieved but various research conducted have suggested that economic and social sustainability are more press-ing dimensions of sustainability. This has shown that there is a big difference in priorities of sustainability between developed and developing countries which should be considered when developing urban sustainability assessment tools. Urban neighbourhood sustainability assessment tool for developing countries should reflect the overall goal of the project, aims and objectives, and indicators to be embedded. This goal should focus on achieving developments that adhere to the sustainability agenda, while the objectives should be clear and focused through a structured approach. Lastly, sustainability indicators are used to meas-ure the levels and progress at which sustainability has been attained based on the data collected from the urban environment which can be digitalised to make in-formed decisions.
This study investigates the method of developing an urban sustainability assess-ment tool in developing countries within the Nigerian context. Using a survey questionnaire method, a total of 50 respondents were sampled and these results were used to develop an urban assessment tool tailored to the Nigeria, Abuja ge-ographical context. The findings used Social, Environmental, Economic and Planning Sustainability dimensions in the development of the assessment tool which comprises of 21 core sustainability indicators and 105 indicators to form SUCCEED ND.